Study finds one in 13 kids has post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Research by scientists at King’s College London has estimated that one in 13 children and teenagers in the UK has suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, while those who had developed PTSD had high rates of other mental health disorders.

The study, published in The Lancet Psychiatry, found slightly more than half of those who had had PTSD - an anxiety disorder caused by very stressful, frightening or distressing events - had also experienced a major depressive episode and one in five had attempted suicide.

But only the same proportion - one in five - had been seen by a mental health professional in the past year.